Del City police investigate a child’s death

DEL CITY, OK — Del City officials are looking into the death of a two-month-old baby as suspicious. It all took place after police responded to a medical call Thursday night.

Residents in the neighborhood were surprised to hear about this tragic incident.

“It was a shock,” said Robert Deaton.

Deaton said he stepped outside around 9:00 p.m. Thursday and saw a fire truck’s flashing lights and a tragic scene.

“About five females were out; just hysterical, screaming and I thought, well maybe there was a fight or something,” said Deaton.

However, it wasn’t a fight. Police said the mother of the child came home from work early to find her husband sleeping and her baby boy not breathing in his crib.

By the time authorities arrived on the scene, the father had left the home, but police officers located the man a few blocks away from the house.

“Anytime you lose a child, you’re going to have a lot of emotion and that could be part of the reason why this person left the scene, we don’t know, that’s still under investigation,” said Major Jody Suit.

Sadly, Del City Police respond to more child deaths than you might imagine.

“We do have a number of baby deaths per year, so it’s really not uncommon, but we treat every death as a homicide until we know differently,” said Major Suit.

So far, police don’t know if foul play was involved and officials say the parents have been cooperating throughout this investigation.

While the death of any child is tragic, Deaton hopes this two-month old baby did not die as a result of abuse.

“I hope it was just a natural cause or an accident,” said Deaton.

The Medical Examiner’s office is looking into the child’s cause of death to determine the next steps of this case.